Living a Focused Life

by Ralph I. Tilley

Too many Christians are living life without focus. They resemble the blind man, who when asked by Jesus what he saw after the Master had touched his eyes, replied, "I see people; they look like trees walking." He saw, but everything was distorted, out of focus. Following Christ's second touch he saw all things clearly."¹

To change metaphors, these living-without-focus-Christians are like sleep-walkers, bumping into walls and stumbling down stairs, with no sense of direction or purpose. Many of them are running at a feverish pace, but have no idea where they're going.

They remind me of an incident that happened to Thomas Huxley one day, a devoted disciple of Darwin and a self-avowed humanist. Huxley had just finished delivering a series of lectures. Taking one of Dublin's horse-drawn taxis, he assumed the driver had been told what his destination was. Upon entering the taxi, all he had told the driver was, "Hurry, I'm almost late. Drive fast!" Before long Huxley discovered the carriage was headed in the wrong direction. He shouted to the driver, "Do you know where you're going?" Without looking back, the driver yelled, "No, your honor! But I'm driving very fast!"

Yes, we're driving very fast, but haven't stopped to consider what our objectives are, our goals, our destination.

The devout Christian and Quaker Thomas Kelly once observed, "The outer distractions of our interests reflect an inner lack of integration in our own selves. We are trying to be several selves at once without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us."²

These are arresting words, spoken by a man who did more than write. He thought. He pondered. He meditated. Then he wrote. And he wrote because he had something to say. Can we say that we are "being organized by a single, mastering Life within us"?

Living in the dawn of this very modern twenty-first century, we Christians are besieged with continuing multiple choices. It can be overwhelming. And the individual choices we make will impact our personal spiritual growth, our families, our church, our communityCeven destinies. It's important that we make the right decisions at critical intervals. But it won't be easy.

Addressing this great pressure the modern world exerts on the Christian, evangelical author and conference speaker Os Guinness writes that unless believers learn to cope successfully with what he terms "pluralization," we cannot expect to live the Christian life successfully with confidence.

Guinness defines pluralization as "the process by which the proliferation of choice rapidly multiplies the number of options." He goes on to say, "This affects the private sphere of modern society at all levels, from consumer goods to relationships to worldviews and faiths."³

We are not the only ones who have faced a myriad of daily and weekly options. Although our age may be technologically astute, our Lord and first-century Christians also had to make choices. How did Jesus and these ancient believers manage to live an abundant life, anyway? Why did they decide to do the things that they did? What was their motivation? 

Living with a Sense of Calling

One need never question whether or not the Lord Jesus ever lived a focused life. From the day he announced to His concerned parents, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"⁴ to the day he cried from the cross, "It is finished!"⁵, Jesus lived his days and nights with a sense of calling.

Our Lord knew who He was, where He had come from, why He was here, what He was to do while here, and where He was going. He was commissioned and on a mission. He allowed nothing and no one to distract him or deter him. By the Spirit's power filling and guiding Him, Jesus overcame temptation, kept to His Father's priorities, and faithfully stayed the course despite deserting disciples and religious fanatics. Neither governments nor councils could dissuade him from accomplishing His mission. Myopic disciples and faithless followers were not allowed to interfere with His calling. His ear was tuned to the beat of the Silent Drummer. He was called. He would be faithful.

The Christian is not to live a driven life. The Christian is to live a called life. Of this the early Christians were persuaded. Thus Paul wrote to the Romans: "Paul, a servant of Christ, called to be an apostle . . ."⁶ Again to the Corinthians: Paul, called to be an apostle . . ."⁷ To the Galatians he wrote the same thing in different words: Paul, an apostleCsent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, . . ."⁸

To the Christians at Rome Paul reminds them that they are "called to belong to Jesus Christ" and that they are "called to be saints . . ."⁹ Many more references like these to calling could be cited.

All Christians are called by God in the sense of Romans 1:6-7. We are called to belong to Jesus Christ and to live holy lives. This is your calling and mine. But in addition to this universal calling which all Christians receive, there is a vocational calling which only some Christians receive. Such was the case with Paul. He was called to be an apostle.

It is only through experiencing the indwelling Christ and understanding our respective callings, that the Christian will be able to live his or her life with poise and purpose, confidence and quietude.

Our Lord could pray in His final days to the Father, "I have brought you glory on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do"¹⁰ because He lived His entire thirty-three years knowing He was called. What about you and me, dear reader? Are we living life with a true knowledge of our calling? If so, we're living a focused life. 

The Discipline of Elimination

Neither the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles, or the first-century Christians could live a focused life without eliminating everything and anything that might hinder their calling and focus. Thus Jesus warned His followers: "If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell."¹¹

Again, concerned with the fleshly impediments that He knew would prevent them from growing in grace and knowledge as they should, the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews wrote: "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, . . ."¹²

I well remember hearing the news as a young boy in 1954, that the four-minute mile barrier had been broken. Olympic runner Roger Bannister broke the tape in record timeC3:59.4. How did he do it? Just as every other successful Olympian competes successfully: by eliminating everything that kept him from his calling and goal. One can't go everywhere, do everything, enjoy every food, stay up all hours of the night, and set a record like Bannister did.

Jerome (342-420) was a master of classical learningChis age's best Latin writer, some have said. He had a passion for scholarship and devoured the works of pagan thinkers. As a Christian, Jerome was troubled by his failure to implement healthy priorities. Historians say that he preferred the cultured style of Cicero and other rhetoricians to the plain, andCwhat he considered to beCclumsy style of the Bible.

But a transforming event changed Jerome. One historian records: "In Antioch he had a feverish dream in which Christ scourged him and accused him, 'You are a Ciceronian, and not a Christian.' Jerome vowed not to study pagan books again."¹³

Let's face it: We cannot live a focused life and fulfill our calling if we allow our inner and outer lives to fill up with moral junk and clutter. Either we get rid of junk or the junk will eventually extinguish our light and neutralize our fruitfulness and effectiveness. We have a choice. 

An Unswerving Commitment

To be called, and to be committed to our calling, are not synonymous. The shores of time are strewn with faithless Christians who failed to pursue a godly lifestyle, or who quit their vocational callings. Of the one, Jesus said: "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."¹⁴ Of the other, the apostle Paul wrote: "Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me . . ."¹⁵

One cannot stay true to his calling without remaining passionately in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. When our love for Christ grows cold our faithfulness to Christ and our calling grows dimCand eventually will die if we aren't renewed. Only by staying at the foot of the Cross are we safe. A passion for Jesus makes all the difference. And that passion must be fed.

A careless, passionate Christian is an oxymoron. One cannot live a careless Christian life and be totally committed to Christ. Too many Christians are living a double-minded life. They're neither comfortable in the world nor in the church. And they're a spiritual drag on both.

Wake up, Christian! The world, the flesh and the Devil have anesthetized you! Don't you hear the Lord Jesus saying, "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."¹⁶

Are you "looking back"? Have you fallen in love with the world? As a teenager, helping my brother-in-law Joe on his farm, I well remember how he first taught me to plow a straight furrow with the tractor. Going out into a large field at springtime, he told me to point the front of the tractor at a distant object. By keeping the tractor on that object I would be able to plow the first furrow straight.

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